Maroon 5 and Wiz Khalifa’s “Payphone” has reached 1 billion views on YouTube. The pop-rock band’s collaboration with the rapper became their sixth entry into the streaming giant’s Billion Views Club, according to Billboard.
An official music video directed by Samuel Bayer accompanied the release of the track in April 2012. The song is part of the band’s fourth studio album, Overexposed, which came out via A&M/Octone Records.
The song’s premise is already dated. A payphone was a thing of the past when Maroon 5 dropped the single, yet that did not stop it from ringing up new sales records.
The film opens with its star in a gloomy frame, and he begins at once with the line: “I’m at a payphone trying to call home, all of my change I spent on you.” Company is what misery loves, as the old saying has it. During its first week, “Payphone” moved a significant number of 493,000 digital downloads to land at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, along with a No. 1 debut on the Digital Songs chart. That opening-week performance stood as the strongest digital sales frame by a group at the time, outpacing the 465,000 sold by the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” from three years prior.
The album Overexposed, which was executive produced by Max Martin, came out on NBC’s The Voice during the year it was released, where Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine had a second gig as a coach. The song was housed on the band’s fourth studio album, and it included the track “Payphone.” Ryan Tedder contributed production to several of its cuts. Overexposed peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Shellback and Benny Blanco produced “Payphone,” which also reached No. 2 on the national singles chart, one of the band’s 15 top 10 hits.
Maroon 5 has enjoyed entry into YouTube’s Billion Views Club with “Sugar,” “Memories,” “One More Night,” “Girls Like You (Volume 2),” and “Girls Like You.” The band’s eighth and most recent album, Love Is Like, dropped in 2025.
“Payphone” joins those five songs as the band’s sixth billion-view entry.
The milestone is a reminder of how quickly things moved in 2012. Digital downloads were still the measure of success, and “Payphone” broke through with a sales frame that beat the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow.” Samuel Bayer directed the video, which shows Levine in a miserable state, and it remains well worth watching again.
Years passed between albums and collaborations for this group, yet “Payphone” still stands as proof of a strong single moment.
Key Facts Box
- Song: Maroon 5 and Wiz Khalifa’s “Payphone”
- Release: April 2012
- Album: Overexposed (A&M/Octone Records)
- Director: Samuel Bayer
- Opening-week downloads: 493,000
- Hot 100 peak: No. 3
- Digital Songs peak: No. 1
- Billion Views Club entries: 6 (this is the sixth)
- Band’s top 10 hits: 15
- Album peak: No. 2 on the Billboard 200
A miserable mood turned into a billion views because the moment was captured well and the band kept finding the right song at the right time. That sequence of events shows how timing matters, not just for one song but for the whole arc of its success.
Source material: “Maroon 5 and Wiz Khalifa’s ‘Payphone’ Dials Up 1 Billion Views on YouTube,” Billboard.
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